Happy Gotcha Day, Sweet Macy!

It is surreal to believe that one year ago today our precious Macy was placed in our arms for good. She was tiny and bald and scared. 365 days later, she's a Southern, sassy, confident, growing little girl. And yes, she finally has hair. A head full of kinky, crazy, curly hair.

This time last year Macy had a year full of "firsts'' ahead of her. Of course holidays and birthdays come to everyone's mind. But she also had other firsts you may not think of...climbing stairs for the first time (for a three year old!), riding in a buckled carseat, taking a hot bath and then a shower, worshiping in church, playing on a playground, rolling in the snow, tasting sweet tea (I mentioned she's now a Southerner, right?), coordinating her squeaky shoes with her hairbows (she is SUCH a diva), been in a pillow fight, screamed through immunizations, starting preschool, playing hide-n-go-seek, outwitting her siblings, and the list goes on and on. This girl has had QUITE the busy year. And there's been firsts for us as parents too...learning to fix that head of hair has been a learning experience for me. And figuring out how to get a lodged jellybean out of her tiny little nose. And teaching her not to wash her hands in the toilet. Oh, the adventures we've had with our little priss.

Imagining life without Macy is hard. Not just because it seems she's been ours all along, but because it's honestly HARD to think of what HER life would be like if she hadn't come home to Tennessee. Some information we found out during our second trip to Ethiopia made us realize that if we hadn't come at the time we were there, she may have never been matched with a family. And then Ethiopia adoptions have all but come to a halt. (Oh how I pray for all of our friends still in the process!). And then the horrific famine. It makes me realize if we'd waited just a couple more weeks to mail in our paperwork or raise our money or ANYTHING - we would not have THIS child. OUR child. Gah....see how that's hard? See how we praise our Maker, then One that loves this sweet girl even more than we do, for orchestrating everything PERFECTLY to bring our daughter home?

We are so very blessed.

Happy Gotcha Day to our spunky, little girl. We love you more than you'll ever know.

What being in a family for just 6 months can do for ya'!

Today we celebrated our Macy Bereket being home a HALF OF A YEAR! And since I practically have a camera attached to me at all times, I just HAD to take a picture to remember the day. And then I had to go back and look at OLD pictures of her. What a SHOCK to see these pics side by side. She doesn't even look like the same kid! Sure she's grown, and yes she has hair now (yippee!), but look at her eyes. You know how they say the eyes are the window to the soul? Well, whoever "they" is, they are totally right. Do you see the hopelessness, confusion, and fear in that first pic? Can you even imagine what she was thinking? She had just been brought to the orphanage in that picture. Imagine the uncertainty my daughter had going through her innocent little mind. Little did that precious child know that we were praying and waiting and praying some MORE for HER.
And then look at that silly, happy little girl in the second picture. Wanna know what she was thinkin' in THAT picture this afternoon? She was wishing her Momma would hurry up and snap the stinkin' picture so she could run off and play with her brothers and sister. Oh the JOY in that picture! And the safety and love you can see in THOSE eyes. THAT picture makes me smile!
So, in six months Miss Macy has done some growin'. That's because the girl can EAT. And eat and eat and eat. Since her first dr. appt here on American soil 6 months ago, she's grown TWO AND A HALF INCHES! And FIVE POUNDS! That's a LOT for a little girl who started out at just 22 pounds for almost three years old! (FYI, my other kids were OVER that weight by their FIRST birthday.)

Her favorite foods: Pizza and Pasta - she's totally our Italian Ethiopian
Her favorite activities: Picking out her many outfits (total diva!), coloring, taking all toys away from Houston, her "bigger, little brother".
Her favorite sayings: "Oooh la la", "More snack, please", "Rock me, Daddy".

Her language skils are crazy good. She can understand EVERYTHING we say, follow directions, and talks a TON. Gone are the days of her using any of her native language and singing the songs she learned with her birthmother (which makes me a little sad). Hannah will still try to use some of her Sidaminga and Amharic words with her little sister, and Macy just gives her that "Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis" look.

Thanks for sharing our journey with us!
I'm looking forward to looking back at these same two pictures in ANOTHER six months!!!

Happy SIX MONTHS HOME, Miss Macy! We love you more than you will EVER know!

P.S. One more thing...I have been AMAZED at the response we've gotten to Macy's adoption video. Completely DUMBFOUNDED, in fact. I've had people- total strangers- from other parts of the country contacting me saying what an impact it's made on their friends and family. And I'll tell ya, folks. That's what I WANT. I want others to see our journey, and to be moved. And prompted. 'Cause ya know what? There's 146,999,999 more Macys out there needing a home.

Our Sleeping Beauty

So I know I haven't really posted much about our trip. All of our recent posts have been about how Miss Macy is doing now that she's home. So I am going to post pictures of our trip a little at a time, and a blurb regarding the pic. The above picture is of Macy taking her nap at the hotel on our "Gotcha Day". Notice she's wearing her hairbow and shoes, and gripping her toy for dear life. Well, that's because she would throw a TOTAL FIT if you dared to remove her bow, or come anywhere near her shoes! I'm talking hysterical, on the ground, screaming tantrum. We realized it's because she probably had never had any of those "accessories", and wasn't about to let go of them without a fight! I decided it wasn't a battle worth fighting that first week, so she slept in bows and shoes for about 4 days before she'd let us coax her out of them. Now that we are home, it's absolutely no big deal to change clothes or remove hairbows and shoes. But the girl LOVVVVVES to feel pretty. Even when we were in Ethiopia she would stand in front of the big, floor length mirror and strike some awesome poses. She loves wearing her big hairbows and headbands - in fact, if she doesn't have one on she'll go fetch one out of her room. And her favorite part of our house is the shoe basket next to the door where we all dump our shoes. She will sit at that basket and try on every stinkin' pair. It's the funniest thing! Jason calls her a total diva. I say the girl just likes to accessorize!